Wild Peach Preserves

07/01/2025

Sharing to save for when the Sumac is ripe here in the Kootenays
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https://www.facebook.com/share/1CBCHGKNSE/?mibextid=wwXI

It’s once again time to make Sumac Powder!

Its flavor dried reminds me of to***co and lemon juice combined. It’s the best ‘native’ Tajin! Sumac is a spice typically used in Middle Eastern cooking (Za’atar spice). It’s easy to tell apart from poison sumac, which is a vine that has white berries! All red berried sumacs are edible. In my area of the Ozarks we have Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) in the late spring early summer and now both Smooth (Rhus glabra) and Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum) ripening now. If you’re really lucky you’ll also find Staghorn Sumac!

To make spice: Sun-dry or dehydrate berries, then add dried berries to a coffee grinder and sift out seeds. It’s wonderful as is sprinkled over hummus, yogurt, and more. I love to add fresh sumac powder with lemon juice and olive oil for an easy salad dressing, meats, corn on the cob, and even Melon!

Happy foraging friends!

12/01/2024

See you one week from today! 🌲
We will have blackberry jam and pear cough syrup, baking and bread, felted ornaments and hand made treats including our famous Bacon jam 🥓 perfect for your charcuterie boards 🍊

09/23/2024

Do you have a strategy for your menopause adventure?
If not, please join us in Castlegar this Sunday for an information packed women’s circle
Offered by Cindy Spratt, Holistic Nutrition,
Laurie Mac Donald and myself.
Nourishing Lunch, gentle yoga and solid strategies for navigating this phase of life will be shared. A couple spots are left, sign up information is in the comments. Hope to see you there 🌻

07/18/2024

Oh it’s on! 🍓💜

05/29/2024

There is 3 times in our lives as women when our brains change to manage life-Pregnancy, Puberty and Peri menopause.
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My kid is dealing with the second P as I navigate the last 🙂 Lots of hormones and big feelings around our house, but knowing how to care for ourselves, the best foods to eat and herbs to take make a huge difference.
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Join myself, Cindy Spratt, Holistic Nutrition and Laurie Mac Donald for a full day retreat focusing on holistic hormone balancing.
Sunday, June 9 th
9:39-4:30
Kootenay Sol Yoga
Castlegar, BC
🌸
Link to register in the comments

08/28/2023

Sharing this to save for later this fall when the rosehips are huge and juicy
🌹 https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=782883443840976&id=100063579819659&post_id=100063579819659_782883443840976&mibextid=CDWPTG

So here is the recipe for Rosehip Harissa!
This is absolutely delicious, packed with vitamin C, polyphenols & fibre!
You need the big rugosa rosehips to make this but you can also make it just with oven roasted red peppers.
You could use sun dried tomatoes instead of the rosehips but then it won't be Rosehip Harissa!
If you have enough rosehips you could just do 3 cups of rosehips instead of adding the peppers!
I added sea buckthorn, a splash of rosewater and some dried rose petals to this along with dried chilli, smoked paprika, cumin and coriander!
It's a taste explosion!!
So far I have spread it on my sourdough toast, with poached eggs, made it into a marinade for tofu, added it to a salad dressing, stirred it into houmous!
Here is the recipe, courtesy of my fabulous foraging friend Vicky The Little Foragers Kitchen

1cup of big rugosa rosehips, halved and deseeded
3 red peppers, sliced and roasted or from a jar
3 cloves garlic
1 spoonful of olive oil
1 - 3 dried chillies, rehydrated
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sea buckthorn juice, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
a handful of fresh rose petals or a tablespoon of dried
a splash of rosewater (optional)

Method

Put the rosehips and peppers on a baking tray with the garlic cloves and a drizzle of olive oil.
Bake at 150C for 45 minutes or until cooked
Dry toast the cumin and coriander seeds, then grind them in a pestle and mortar.
Pour boiling water over the dried chillies and allow them to rehydrate for 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the seeds and chop the dried chillies
Add all the ingredients to a blender or food processor and blitz until well combined.
Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste.
Transfer to a clean glass jar and store in the fridge for up to 10 days or transfer to ice cube trays and freeze.

02/16/2023

Making it through winter with lots if creative cooking adventures 💙🥣

07/10/2022

Pineapple w**d 🍍

OH, MY GODDESS – you’ve got to make these keto Wild Chamomile/ Pineapple W**d Muffins! Their unique aromatic flavor (a cross between zingy pineapple and soothing chamomile) just permeates these moist fragrant muffins which are made doubly scrumptious by the cream cheese filling. They are one of my favorite summer treats and my poor pre-diabetic hubby can eat them without guilt! I’m sharing this recipe from Gather Victoria Patreon because I’ve noticed that my Pineapple W**d Cookies recipe is especially popular on the website right now – and these muffins are even better! Recipe here: https://gathervictoria.com/2022/07/09/wild-chamomile-pineapple-w**d-keto-muffins-w-cream-cheese-filling/

06/21/2022

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This is the time of the year when the sun’s powers are at their absolute height, and plants are brimming with solar energy. Meaning it's time for my annual summer solstice ritual – making Midsummer Floral extracts! You can use these in baking & cocktails and magical potions of all kinds!

https://gathervictoria.com/2018/06/18/celebrate-the-magic-of-midsummer-with-fragrant-floral-extracts/

05/16/2022

I have lilac macaroons on the menu for a wedding this spring. Excited to read up on methods to extract lilacs' essence 🌸

I am enchanted and enamored of lilac. For over a decade I have attempted to capture her glorious scent in baking and every year I learn yet another lesson about her culinary intricacies. Through trial and error, I discovered what perfumers knew long ago, lilac’s intoxicating fragrance is notoriously difficult to preserve! Then two years ago, inspired by research into an ancient perfumery technique, I created this Lilac Shortbread for Gather Victoria Patreon – and it comes as close to lilac perfection as I ever have been able to get! And it was so simple.

This Lilac Shortbread borrows from the scent preservation method called enfleurage. Because lilac’s volatile oils do not fare well with heat extraction, blossoms were pressed into fat to make lilac perfume. So I wondered could you use the same method for cooking? Like with butter? Well, I’m happy to report you absolutely can. You’ll find the recipe and a “how-to” video up at the gather victoria website now. https://gathervictoria.com/2022/05/14/the-perfect-lilac-shortbread-the-art-of-enfleurage/

05/14/2022

Pickled Magnolia leaves!